Adaptive Urbanism

Conventional urban scale master plans lack the flexibility required to account for ad-hoc changes and informal developments. They are static projections of a possible future. Our Open-Ended master planning strategy is developed with our clients to overcome these shortcomings. Rather than prescribing a specific design, we develop a catalogue of decision-making tools that lead to various scenarios. While the individual scenarios can vary to a certain extent, defined rules and guidelines ensure that certain criteria are met and maintained. The planning process becomes a highly involved, scenario based social activity: involving partners, clients, specialists and planning instances.

The resulting master plans incorporate the highest possible degree of flexibility given the social, commercial and ecological requirements of the area. These plans permit short-term operational developments and serve as a regulatory framework for long-term strategic planning.

To cover unforeseen operational developments, the master plan is a binding, strategic, spatial control instrument. It is able to flex or be altered in response to these unforeseen events so that their possible effects can be assessed and speedy decisions made on how to best proceed.